. >>> there's still no deal to stop the looming fiscal cliff. but what happens to you if we go off the cliff? for the average american making between $50,000 and $75,000, you see a tax increase of $2,399. making between $100,000 and $200,000 a year, your tax increase is about $6,700. and on december 29th, 2 million americans will lose their unemployment benefits. i want to bring in jared bernstein, msnbc contributor and former chief economist and economic policy adviser to vice president joe biden. that's just some of the details as you so well know here but let's remind ourselves, though, of this word that we have been using. that was termed by mr. bernanke. he called it a cliff. but really -- >> right. >> it is like falling down stairs, isn't it? >> right. more so a staircase or a slope in the sense that some of the damage you just described actually takes a while to arrive and if congress is able to quickly reverse the cliff dive, it could be more and i have heard folks use this, more of a bungee yump to get back up to the cliff. >> at the en